Aviva Investors, the global asset management business of Aviva, has strengthened its real estate long income (RELI) team with a double hire.
Todor Valev has been appointed as assistant fund manager of the European real estate long income fund (E-RELI), reporting to Renos Booth, head of real estate long income.
Based in Frankfurt, Valev will work closely with both Booth and Isabel Gossling, deputy fund manager, assisting in the delivery of the fund’s strategy, including liquidity analysis, reporting, supervision of transactions and debt strategy. Todor joins from Principle Real Estate where he was transaction manager.
Sam Gadar has also recently joined the RELI team as origination manager (associate director), responsible for the origination of long income real estate assets. Gadar joins from Cushman & Wakefield where he was an associate director, working on transactions and advisory within their healthcare team.
Booth said: 'We are very pleased to welcome Todor and Sam on board. This year we’ve seen a marked increase in institutional demand for long income strategies in the UK and in Europe, so they have joined at an opportune time to build upon this growth.
'Their combined expertise will be a great asset to meet the increased demand as we continue to deliver strong investment outcomes for our clients.'
Aviva Investors’ Real Estate Long Income team secured £1 bn (€1.2 bn) of new capital over the course of 2020, despite a challenging environment as a result of the pandemic. The growth in demand for Long Income strategies saw assets under management for Aviva Investors’ Long Income business pass £5 bn, following acquisitions totalling £528 mln, across the logistics, office, hospitality and residential sectors.
